Phuket

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On the bus to Phuket I shared my ipod with Rich as his had broken; I think we managed to annoy the whole bus by singing for a good deal of the journey. I then fell asleep & Rich decided he was going to film it on his camera as my head kept falling all over the place like a nodding donkey apparently.

We arrived in Kata in Phuket at about 4pm, (Friday) & were met by Claire's friend Lee who lives & works in Phuket as a diving instructor. Lee had reserved us some rooms at a guesthouse so he took us there & we grabbed some food. Afterwards we all went to Kata beach to watch the sunset. Claire, Dan, Lee & I went in the sea to watch it, it was a good sunset.

We went for something to eat later & went to Mellow Bar, we went Lee's housemate Wilky & got some beers from 7/11 & went back to their house, Lee showed us some of the videos & photos he & his girlfriend Lisa, (who is also a diving instructor), had take/filmed; there was a great one of a sea snake eating a moray eel that was bigger than him & loads of great photos of sharks, rays & all sorts.

Saturday we had a lie in as we didn't get in until 4am & we didn't really do a lot. Claire went with Lee to hire a jeep to collect her parents from the airport when they arrived on Sunday. Dan, Justin & I went to use the internet when Justin said he wasn't well & couldn't breathe or walk. Dan called Claire & we had to take him up the road to the vets!!! It turned out he had tonsillitis, which was just as funny as having to take him to the vets, he wasn't impressed that we all found it so funny & didn't stay out long on Saturday night.

Saturday night we went for a curry, (Dan, Rich, Claire, Pete, Justin & I), then went to Mellow bar to meet Lee & Lisa. Dan, Rich, Pete, Claire & I got a tuk tuk to Patong & were talked into going to a bit of a dodgy bar, lets just say for some people's sake that it wasn't for the tame hearted & we didn't stay long! We escaped to an Irish bar & had a few before going to a nice bar on the beach front which had a good live band.

When we got home I pretty much went to bed straight away, so did Pete & Rich. Claire & Dan managed to adopt another pet cat called Lu Lu & thought it would be funny if they put it in Rich & Pete's room, apparently they could hear Rich saying to Pete, "I'm sure there is a cat in here!"

Sunday morning we got up early & Claire & I headed to Phuket Airport in the jeep, via Tesco & KFC. We collected Claire's Mum & Dad & I was crying before Claire, then Claire started & by the time her Mum & Dad came out of Arrivals we were both a sobbing mess! We headed back to the guesthouse & took them to the beach, we went for a snack in a nice bar on the beach & sat drinking beer & playing cards; it was nice & I was made to feel part of the family. Claire's Mum had even brought me little goody bags with lots of essential items in, it was very kind of her. In the evening lee came to meet us & we went for a meal, the nine of us!

On Monday Pete left to meet Charlie in Phi Phi, Dan & Rich hired bikes, Justin was ill, (again), & Claire's Mum & Dad, Elsie & Bob, Claire & I went out in the jeep after breakfast. We went to Kata Noi beach, round the cost & found an Elephant trekking place that went through the jungle. Elephants are such beautiful animals, I really like them. Claire & I had one elephant & Elsie & Bob had another Elephant; we trekked on his back through the jungle & had fantastic views across the whole of the south side of Phuket. We even got to sit on his neck, the man who was like his guide or trainer talked to him in Thai & the elephant understood; it was fascinating. We called our elephant Chang after the Thai beer with an elephant logo & called Elsie & Bob's elephant Dumbo, Chang was 49 & I think Dumbo was 50.

We went on to Kata view point & had great views again, took some photos then headed in the jeep up the east coast tot he pier where Lee's dive boat goes from. We then went to a pub called The Green Man; it was a typical English pub, put in the middle of Phuket that should have been in the countryside with wooden beams & stuff. We had a jug of Sangria & sat in the beer garden. Afterwards we took the jeep back & got a tuk tuk back to Kata.

Claire & I went to meet Dan & Rich in the Reggae bar & had amazing views of the setting sun over the sea. Lee came to meet us & we went to Kata Noi beach & watched the sunset. In the evening we went to an Italian Restaurant which was very nice, even got to have a glass of white wine!! Justin didn't stay as he was ill again, (can you see a pattern?) We all went for a cocktail in a nice bar down the road & then Elsie & Bob went home.

Dan, Rich, Claire & I went to 7/11 & invested in a bottle of the devils drink aka Samsung, it was such a funny night; Rich tried to put Claire in the fridge in 7/11 & wanted to milk the cat, Lu Lu, who had just had kittens. Rich then insisted that if cats could talk they would speak Vietnamese. At about 5am Dan said he could understand what Bob Marley was trying to say in his songs, Claire, Rich & I fell about laughing; it was hilarious.

The boys were leaving for Phi Phi the following morning & were determined to stay up & just get picked up at 7am, which they did. At 7am Claire & I fell into bed after saying goodbye & slept till about midday. We went to the post office & to collect our laundry, then met Elsie & Bob on the beach. We went to a bar round the corner to a bar & spent the afternoon talking & drinking, it was nice.

On Tuesday evening we went to a posh Thai restaurant on the top of a hill, it was a nice restaurant but the food wasn't too good, Justin even managed to join us. Claire & I were not drinking as on Wednesday we had three dives planned with Lee, so an early night was had by all.

Claire & I got picked up at 7.30am & taken to the pier near Phuket town, we met Lee & he had already sorted our equipment out for us. We got to sit on the top deck of the boat in the sun for a couple of ours before our briefing on the first dive site, Koh Doc Mai, (meaning Flower Island), a large island/rock in the sea. This was to be my first deep dive since doing my PADI course, with my qualification I am only supposed to dive to 18 metres but Lee said I was ok so we made it down to 25.3 metres at the deepest. I was a bit nervous when we first jumped off the boat as the water was quite choppy but once underwater I felt better, although my air consumption was quicker than it had been previously, but Lee said not to worry as I was diving almost 10 metres deeper than my previous dives.

We even saw two bamboo sharks which was very exciting, in addition to moray eels & loads of other great creatures. The boat was amazing & we got free drinks, breakfast, lunch & there were even showers & free sea sickness tablets; luckily I didn't need them. The second dive was at the King Cruiser wreck site; King Cruiser was a passenger ferry from Phuket to Phi which sank in May 1997. We got to swim in & around the wreck & on our briefing we had been told about a moray eel which lives in one of the three toilets on the ship. We swam along to the toilets & Lee opened the first one, there wasn't an eel, the second was already open, again no eel, then Lee opened the last one & two moray eels started to swim out, they are evil looking creatures & Lee got some great photos of them. The current was really strong on this dive but it was still really good, time goes so fast when you are diving, you feel like you have been down there for 10 minutes & it has actually been about 45 minutes.

After lunch we went to shark point for our third dive, this was by far my favourite dive, as Lee said it was like Fish soup, you descend in to the water & there are millions of fish surrounding you. We had been told of a turtle & a couple of sharks that we may see but unfortunately we didn't get to see them. We did however get to see amazing coloured corals, clown fish, (like Nemo), flute fish, yellow spotted box fish, black spotted puffer fish, squid, moray eels & lots more. It was so nice to have Lee to ourselves to guide us around the dive sites & show us the best places; he put some great photos for us which we can obviously keep forever as memories.

On Wednesday evening we had a nice meal & an early night as we were leaving for Ko Lanta early on Thursday morning. Phuket was very touristy compared to the islands on the East Coast of Thailand but I really enjoyed the elephant treks, the dives, meeting Lee & spending some fun times with Claire's family & our friends.

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Photos

A moray eel
Don't they look evil!

Comments

[Andy]

Wow, great photos! I love the one of you and Clare in you diving gear - you both look so happy! Miss u loads babe xxx